Jury commissioner positions will return to ballot

Local political parties, and not the voters themselves, will choose who is listed for jury commissioner on the November general election ballot, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State.

The position was delisted from the municipal primary in Chester County and several other counties when the county commissioners voted last year to abolish the decades-old office responsible for selection of the county’s jury pool. But that decision was thrown into turmoil last week when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court voided the law that allowed counties to do that.

By a unanimous 6-0 vote, the Supreme Court justices said the General Assembly had used an unconstitutional route to pass the legislation by attaching it to another bill that had nothing to do with the jury system in the state.

For now, the voters will be asked to select two jury commissioners in the fall, one from the Democratic Party and one from the Republican Party. The two political committees will have until Sept. 15 to select and certify the candidates they want to run for the position, unless something intervenes.

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Jury commissioners traditionally help ensure that trial jurors reflect a cross-section of society and deal with juror problems. But critics in some counties argued that the job is no longer needed, thanks to computerization, and that the duties are often performed by court staff. Eliminating the positions also saves money.

The Legislature in 2011 gave all counties that have commissioners a means of doing away with them, and dozens did so. But the justices say the change was impermissibly tied with a measure that dealt with electronic auctions by counties and not the court system. The state constitution says bills can’t have more than one subject.

“My colleagues and I are very happy with the court’s unanimous decision,” said Chester County Jury Commissioner Mimi Sack, a Republican, on Friday, a day after the court’s decision was announced. She said the solicitor for the Pennsylvania Association of Jury Commissioners, David Cleaver, told the association members that “in 45 years of practicing law, this is the happiest day of my life.”

“Having supported the retention of the office of jury commissioner, I am pleased by the Supreme Court’s decision,” she wrote in a statement. “This decision is also important as it relates to the legislative process, and Sam Stretton is to be commended for his successful argument.”

Stretton, a West Chester attorney and Democratic Party activist, was hired by the jury commissioners’ association to handle the lawsuit to have the Legislature’s action overturned.

In Chester County, Republican Commissioners Ryan Costello and Terence Farrell voted to abolish the office.

“I am disappointed with the decision, because this is a cost-saving measure which enables us to provide the same level of service $75,000 cheaper,” said Costello on Friday. “My hope is that the Legislature can re-pass the bill empowering county commissioners to abolish the office quickly so that it’s not on the ballot this year.”

The County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, which supported the bill permitting the abolishment of the position, said that the court’s decision was based on its view of the method of the bill’s passage, not its merits.

“The ruling is not based on merits or constitutionality of abolition, but rather on the narrow issue that, in the court’s view, the legislation had multiple subjects in violation of the constitutional provision,” association Executive Director Douglas Hill wrote in a statement. “Our argument had been that while the bill dealt with two issues — electronic bids is the other — it was within a single statute and both issues dealt with commissioner administrative prerogatives.

The court has ruled in different directions on this topic several times over the last few years, making what appear to be situational judgments, he added.